The life of Henry Hill, as told in Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy, is a life in which everything is the reverse of what the
rest of the world experiences. What most Americans see as bad, Hill and his Mafia friends saw as good. Even those things where the world would agree with the Mafia were reversed. Hill and his friends placed a heavy emphasis on providing for their families and protecting them in any situation. But they resorted to violence whenever they chose and worked extremely hard at making sure they could get the jump on all the other criminals in fighting for a share in the criminal opportunities that were available. Through all this they developed a belief that theirs was the only way-to-live. There is never any questioning of the way they live and as Hill's wife, who was not from his world, is gradually pulled into it the reader can see how there is a complete transformation of her values as well. The book demonstrates how completely people can take on a view of the world that has nothing at all to do with what everyone else regards as normal.
Henry Hill was born in 1943 in Brownsville-East in New York where his father was an electrician, "the kind of guy who worked hard his whole life and was never there for the payday" (21). By the time he was eleven Henry Hill knew that what he wanted most in the world was to be one of the wise guys associated with the taxi stand across the street from his parents' home. He saw their lives as glamorous and free and far above the drudgery and shortage of money he experienced in his own home. He got a job parking cars for the owner of the stand and from there his life became consumed by the wise guys and their businesses. He recalled that he was learning something every day, "I'd listen to schemes and I watched guys score. It was natural" (21).
By the age of thirteen he was scheming himself, working as a runner for betting interests and selling illegal fireworks. All t...